As I set up my classroom for word study, I consulted the Growing Words: Word Part Instruction Guide. Before I introduced the Word Part of the Week, I wanted to introduce Latin and Greek Roots to my students in a creative way. I started looking online for materials that would set the stage for teaching Latin and Greek Roots and I came across a resource on Teachers Pay Teachers entitled Common Core Story of Greek Roots . I used this resource to help my students understand that many of our English words have parts that are based on Latin and Greek meanings.
Rasinski, et. al. (2011), stated, “90 percent of English words with more than one syllable are Latin based. Most of the remaining 10 percent are Greek based. A single Latin root generates 5-20 English words.” Given this fact, it is obligatory for all teachers to carve out some time within the instructional day to provide direct instruction on Latin roots. What is more, the students’ understanding of Latin and Greek roots is a better predictor of reading comprehension than their vocabulary level (Rasinski, et. al., 2011). Based on this fact alone, I don’t feel bad spending 50 percent of my instructional time during small group reading instruction, teaching word analysis.
In this episode, you will hear me reading aloud The Story of Greek Roots in order to get my students acclimated to Latin/Greek Derivations of words.
References:
Rasinski, T. V. (2011). Greek & Latin roots: Keys to building vocabulary. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.
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